BACTERIOPHAGE:PATHOGEN:ENVIRONMENT -- UNRAVELING THE CRITICAL FACTORS NECESSARY TO MAKE PHAGE BIOCONTROL A REALITY

The overarching goal of this project is to address critical knowledge gaps that have so far prevented phage biocontrol deployment for management of bacterial diseases of tree fruits. Goals of the project are to use a frequent sampling approach combining genetic and culture-based techniques to simultaneously track the population dynamics of bacterial pathogens and phages during the flower colonization cycle to better understand phage activity in biocontrol applications to inform better deployment tactics. A second goal is to identify surfactants or other compounds that can disrupt bacterial aggregates and better enable phages to contact bacterial cell targets. A third goal is to combine phages with other materials that can slow the growth of bacterial plant pathogens to better enable phages to contact, attach to, and infect to enable successful biocontrol.